Supercars: Rain washes out Bathurst 1000 Top 10 Shootout
Bathurst 1000 organizers have cancelled the Top 10 Shootout for the first time in 44 years due to heavy rainfall at Mount Panorama.
The session — which was to decide the top-10 grid positions for Sunday’s race — was scheduled to start at 5:05pm AEDT.
Motorsport Australia officials spent over an hour deliberating whether to let the top 10 drivers from Friday’s first qualifying session take to the track to decide their starting order for Sunday’s race.
But it was deemed unsafe after the final Super2 and Toyota 86 series races were also canned, with rivers of water running on the track at times.
“Race Control has advised that the Supercars Top 10 Shootout has been cancelled due to extreme weather, leaving the track in an unsafe condition for competition,” a Motorsport Australia statement read.
Cam Waters will start from pole for the second time, having also secured the spot in 2020.
Waters said he was disappointed to see the shootout cancelled but preferred to see the full field out for Sunday’s race, rather than have cars wrecked in the hazardous conditions.
“The rain was crazy and you saw the rivers and everything going on. It was going to be a bit of a safety thing,” he told Fox Sports.
“As soon as you hit a river you aquaplane, you’ve got no control over the car and you don’t want to be writing cars off the day before the big race.”
The official starting grid for tomorrow’s Repco Bathurst 1000:
Pos | Num | Team/Sponsor | Driver | Car |
1 | 6 | Monster Energy Racing | Cameron Waters | Ford Mustang GT |
2 | 10 | Penrite Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Ford Mustang GT |
3 | 25 | Mobil 1 Optus Racing | Chaz Mostert | Holden Commodore ZB |
4 | 51 | Boost Mobile Racing 51 | Richie Stanaway | Holden Commodore ZB |
5 | 17 | Shell V-Power Racing Team | Will Davison | Ford Mustang GT |
6 | 2 | Mobil 1 NTI Racing | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore ZB |
7 | 97 | Red Bull Ampol Racing | Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB |
8 | 5 | Snowy River Racing | James Courtney | Ford Mustang GT |
9 | 99 | Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus | Brodie Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB |
10 | 9 | Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus | William Brown | Holden Commodore ZB |
11 | 100 | Shell V-Power Racing Team | Anton De Pasquale | Ford Mustang GT |
12 | 8 | R&J Batteries Racing | Andre Heimgartner | Holden Commodore ZB |
13 | 31 | Subway PremiAir Racing | James Golding | Holden Commodore ZB |
14 | 88 | Red Bull Ampol Racing | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore ZB |
15 | 55 | Castrol Racing | Thomas Randle | Ford Mustang GT |
16 | 888 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore ZB |
17 | 56 | Tradie Racing | Jake Kostecki | Ford Mustang GT |
18 | 26 | Penrite Racing | David Reynolds | Ford Mustang GT |
19 | 35 | Truck Assist Racing | Todd Hazelwood | Holden Commodore ZB |
20 | 20 | Alspec Racing | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB |
21 | 22 | PremiAir Coca Cola Racing | Chris Pither | Holden Commodore ZB |
22 | 96 | Kubota | Macauley Jones | Holden Commodore ZB |
23 | 18 | IRWIN Racing | Mark Winterbottom | Holden Commodore ZB |
24 | 14 | Middy’s Electrical Racing | Bryce Fullwood | Holden Commodore ZB |
25 | 34 | Truck Assist Racing | Jack Le Brocq | Holden Commodore ZB |
26 | 118 | Caltex Young Stars | Matthew Chahda | Holden Commodore ZB |
27 | 4 | SCT Racing | Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB |
28 | 3 | CoolDrive Auto Parts | Tim Slade | Ford Mustang GT |